I can see some spiders working their webs out my window and I thought, wonder what they do in winter? Turns out, many hunker down in sheltered spots and slow their metabolism to a crawl. Most are underground, under leaves, or under snow.
Many spiders produce antifreeze proteins….yup…they can survive the cold. So, that makes me feel better about relocating some of them out into the trees outside when they are in the wrong spots in the house.
Spiders are proof that one perfect moment can be ruined by the tiniest thing. I have a fond memory of sitting on the grass in the front yard as a kid, on a hot, summer day, face up to the sun, enjoying the warmth. So good. And then, there was this light movement across my hand. I looked down and it was a Daddy longlegs….though we always called them dandy longlegs….their real name, Pholcids. I jumped up screaming, it went flying wherever, and that feeling of its feet moving across my hand gave me chills. Not sure why. As I thought about these things later, it was just a spider making it’s way downtown, walking fast, faces pass and it was homebound…and my hand was basically just a hill. It had nothing against me, well, maybe not until after I sent it flying.
We see them and smash them to bits, these arachnids that are simply living life just like we are. Born in one place, moving around, finding what we need to survive. I always felt like they were after me, but that doesn’t make sense. Why would they be after me? Or anyone? Are they up in the corner of the wall and ceiling just waiting for us to fall asleep so they can drop onto our faces just to scare us? Really, they’re probably wondering what all the noise is when we get close to them. (all the screaming) Don’t even get me started on the wolf spider I saw in my parents porch years ago! I had never seen one so big before!
I was surprised to see posts on social media where people have a spider as a pet! One family, who live and travel in a bus, have a plant area where their spider spends a good portion of its time. It does wander throughout the bus though, and if they see it somewhere it might get stepped on, they coax it onto a piece of paper and place it back in the plant area. It also keeps other insects away. I don’t think I would want to keep one as a pet, but I don’t get offended anymore if I see them in the house. Around 2am the other morning, I went to the washroom and as I was walking out, saw a black spider huddled up near the corner of the wall but out of my reach. I said, “Don’t be here in the morning, or you’re going outside.” He was gone in the morning. One had been on the back of our bathroom door, too close to the towels, so I helped him move to a brighter spot, outside, on the grapevines. I feel better about being able to move them to the trees in our yard, because I know they will still continue to thrive. So, if you see me on my porch early in the morning or late at night in my robe with a dustpan in my hand, just keep going, I’m just saving little arachnids.
